7 days ago

7 days ago

7 days ago

1 week ago

RTC Live: National Semifinals

Welcome to the Final Four. The Road Ends Here, so we’re told, and we honestly have trouble remembering a national semifinal pairing as odd as these two games tonight. A couple of mid-major Cinderellas in the opener, followed by a couple of blueblooded heavyweights in the evening, each of which had an up-and-d0wn season more characteristic of a second round finisher than a national semifinalist. Yet here we are: Butler vs. VCU, Kentucky vs. UConn. A veritable bubbling cauldron of coaching acumen on display — no matter the resumes of these four teams, the winner that comes from this group will have proven his chops. Will it be one of the young guns, Shaka Smart or Brad Stevens, too green behind the ears still not even at Senator-age to understand just how difficult it is to get to this weekend (ask Gene Keady or John Chaney); or will it be an older sage, Jim Calhoun or John Calipari, each the target of investigations wrapped up in investigations, but also managing to generally avoid the eight-ball of culpability for the smoke wafting around their programs. Absolutely none of that matters tonight, as the players on the floor will be giving their all to get a chance to taste Monday night, one step further on the road to collegiate immortality. Join us, as RTC covers its first Final Four, in what we hope will be an epic closing weekend to a wild and woolly NCAA Tournament.